Canada Between the Wars 1919- 1939

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Canada Between the Wars1919- 1939
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Post War Canada

• Closing of War Industries
• major effects such as high inflation, women
  returning to home, rising unemployment,
  increasing labour unrest
• Winnipeg General Strike 1919
• 30 000 workers went on strike (demanded .85
  cents per hour, 8 hour day, right to collective
  bargaining)
• Bloody Saturday riots and violence led to 1
  death and 30 injuries
• Leaders arrested and sent to jail but more
  attention drawn to social and economic problems
  of workers
• Prohibition Bootlegging
• ban of production, import and distribution of
  alcohol
• Led to bootleg booze- smuggled alcohol and
  speakeasies
• Spanish Flu
• Massive epidemic after veterans returned home
• Deadly strain killing up to 100 million people
  50 000 Canadians

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Social Issues

• Aboriginal Issues
• Policy of assimilation seen in the Indian Act
  1867, creation of residential schools, and policy
  of enfranchisement (right to vote if give up
  Aboriginal status)
• League of Indians- created in 1919 by Frederick
  Loft (Aboriginal war veteran) to make a united
  voice for Aboriginals
• Immigration
• Xenophobia- intense dislike of foreigners
• 1919 Immigration Act- made all immigrants pass an
  English literacy test (emphasis on assimilation)
• 1923- Chinese Exclusion Act banned all Chinese
  immigrants except students, merchants and
  diplomats (from 1923- 1947- only 8 Chinese
  immigrants admitted to Canada)

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Roaring Twenties
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New Technologies Movements

• New technologies radio, automobile, passenger
  planes
• Ford Model T or Tin Lizzie was most affordable
  car (395 in 1924) and was mass produced by
  assembly line
• Ted Rogers Canadian who invented the worlds
  first battery-less radio
• Joseph Bombardier Canadian who invented first
  snowmobile called B-7 for medical transport in
  winter
• Persons Case Famous Five campaigned that women
  should be considered Persons under Canadian
  Law finally granted by Britains Privy Council
  and Cairine Wilson was first women appointed to
  the Senate

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Entertainment Sports

• Americanization
• Huge influence of culture influence from United
  States
• Fads
• mahjong, crosswords, contests, dancing marathons
• Fashions
• flappers, rising hemlines, bob haircut, knickers,
  bow ties
• Entertainment
• Jazz Age, Charleston dance
• talkies (talking movies) with stars Charlie
  Chaplin and Canadian Mary Pickford Americas
  Sweetheart
• Golden Age of Sports
• Famous amateur athletes such as Lionel Conacher,
  Bobbie Rosenfeld played multiple sports
• Women in Sports Edmonton Grads dominated
  basketball for over 20 years but by 1930s
  competitive sports were considered unfeminine
• Professional Sports hockey (NHL) Foster
  Hewitts call of Hockey Night and Canada
  baseball

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1920s Economy

• ECONOMIC PROSPERITY
• End of post war economic problems
• New inventions and mass production of products
  fueled economy and employment
• High sales, high wages, high prices, high
  production, high profits, high demand, low
  unemployment
• Emergence of branch plants in Canada
• PLAYING THE STOCKMARKET
• Get rich quick scheme (buy low, sell high)
• Stock / share a unit of ownership in a company
• Price of share dependent on supply and demand
• CREDIT BUYING
• credit buying of products (appliances)- buy
  now, pay later
• buying on margin of stocks

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The Balloon Bursts The Great Crash of 1929

• HOW DID IT CRASH?
• Stocks were highly inflated or overpriced AND
  company assets were not the same worth
• Investors became nervous as stock prices were
  becoming too high for what it actually worth
• Black Tuesday October 29, 1929 massive
  selling of stocks gt panic sets in gt everyone
  selling
• As investors sold, prices of stocks plunged
• EFFECTS
• Thousands of investors wiped out
• Banks demanded payment for loans but borrowers
  could not repay
• Many companies had borrowed money to finance
  expansion of companies and had to shut down gt
  rise in unemployment
• People had bought many stocks and items on
  credit- had nothing to pay back then banks would
  repossess items (ie. homes)
• People could not afford to buy clothes, food and
  other merchandise gt forcing more companies to go
  bankrupt and put more people out of work
• Trigger to the Great Depression- worst economic
  downturn in history

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Background Causes of Great Depression

• Similar to WWI, there were BACKGROUND CAUSES to
  the Depression
• Overexpansion overproduction
• Canadas Dependence on Staples (wheat)
• Canadas Dependence on United States
• High Taxes decreased International Trade
• Credit Buying
• Buying on Margin

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The Dirty Thirties

• 1933- 1/3 of people were out of work
• Riding the rods
• Relief vouchers or Pogey
• Relief Camps
• Dust Bowl
• Soup Kitchens
• Bennett Buggies
• On to Ottawa Trek Regina Riot

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Political Responses

• P.M. Mackenzie King
• Five Cent Speech 1930
• re-elected 1935
• P.M. R.B. Bennett
• elected 1930
• proposed the New Deal
• New Political Parties
• emerged to solve the problems of the 1930s
• Social Credit- leader William Aberhart
• Union Nationale- leader Maurice Duplessis
• Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)-
  leader J.S. Woodsworth

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Promoting Canadian Identity

• Group of Seven
• Canadian Authors Association (1921)
• RCAF Royal Canadian Air Force (1924)
• Statute of Westminster (1931)
• CRBC Canadian Radio Broadcasting Company (1933)
• CBC Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (1936)
• NFB National Film Board (1939)

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What brought the world out of the Great
Depression?

• World War II breaks out September 3, 1939
• Canada declares war on Germany September 10, 1939

• HOW?
• war industries re-open
• rise in employment
• as more people get jobs,people have to spend
• businesses revived